IN the world of politics, making a stand on an issue can sometimes lead to friendly advice and curious SMSes. This is one such story, with no morals attached to the telling of the tale, save those that readers conclude for themselves. The advice I had just finished a local council meeting when a senior […]
councillor
Supporting letters: Abuse or necessity?
ARE support letters by elected representatives and councillors necessary to maintain good public relations, or are they a political liability that are open to misuse and abuse?
A councillor’s life
MBPJ councillor KW Mak would like to someday return – via legal means – to an income bracket that allows him to pay taxes, as the benefit of having free parking in Petaling Jaya as a councillor is really overrated.
Privatising rubbish collection: Who benefits?
THE federal government wants to privatise rubbish removal services under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) and have local councils focus purely on enforcement. Technically, the federal government cannot legally force a local government to enter into a privatisation contract. A contract’s signatories would have to be representatives from the government entering the contract itself. However, […]
How MBPJ flouts the law
THE problems of poor and uncoordinated town planning were identified and recognised way back in 2005 when the Federal Town and Country Planning Department produced the National Physical Plan (NPP). The NPP was produced after town planning, which was to be dealt with in state and local plans, ended up being unguided and not in […]
Why ratepayers complain
IN this instalment of Ampersand, I shall detail the extra duties of handling complaints as a councillor. I will explain why the public continues to approach councillors such as myself despite the fact that the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has a complaints department. The MBPJ also has a 24-hour hotline for complaints. Apart from […]
Tales from a Councillor: Anonymous complaints
THERE are times when people request and demand that I stand up for their rights. But they are reluctant to make the request official, preferring instead to remain anonymous. As always, there are no morals to these stories, save those that readers conclude for themselves. Neighbour’s renovations A lady called up and demanded that I […]
Testing the MBPJ
LOCAL government elections seems to be a hot topic in Malaysia’s current political landscape. The belief is that a local council would be more accountable to the taxpaying public if elections are held. The Election Commission, however, will not conduct local government elections because it violates the Local Government Act. So while we are stuck […]
How MBPJ got it wrong
(Pic by moth / Dreamstime) IN the previous instalment of Ampersand, I established that there is a discrepancy between the deposited plan for Petaling Jaya (PJ) and the on-the-ground development in the city. Specifically, I highlighted that areas marked as open space in the deposited plan are now built over with commercial development. In this […]
Sketches of a councillor
LOCAL council meetings can stretch on for four to five hours. Many issues arising from the non-adherence of the law by the previous government need the current administration’s attention. At times when the debate gets ridiculously long-winded or totally diverges from the topic at hand, I sketch. This drawing habit comes from my love for […]
